1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera having a built-in retractable flash.
2. Description of the Related Art
A camera having a built-in retractable flash is well-known. The built-in retractable flash is manually raised or automatically rises from the camera body when needed.
A particular type of built-in retractable flash (built-in pop-up flash) is also known which automatically rises into place by the spring force of a spring member upon manually depressing a knob or button provided on the camera body. With the camera having such type of flash the user simply depresses the knob or button to raise the flash when they desire to use it. However, with such type of flash the user has to retract the flash manually, which is troublesome. Further, with such type of flash it is sometimes the case that the user forgets to raise the flash into place when it is necessary to use it.
In a conventional compact camera having a built-in flash, it is general that the camera automatically fires the flash in dim light in a normal photographic mode and that the camera fires or does not fire the flash at each shot in a specified photographic mode (e.g., a compulsive-flash mode or a flash-prohibition mode). Conventionally such a specified photographic mode is manually selected by pressing a special knob or button provided on the camera body. Accordingly, in a compact camera having a built-in retractable flash, the flash preferably rises and retracts automatically when the main switch (not shown) of the camera is turned ON and OFF, respectively. However, it is difficult to incorporate such a mechanism for automatically raising or retracting the flash within a small compact camera without increasing the size of the camera body.
In order to miniaturize a camera, each internal component of the camera must be space-efficiently arranged in the camera body. A compact camera that offers higher levels of sophistication and performance is usually made up of a large number of components, which makes it more difficult to space-efficiently arrange each inside component of the camera within a small camera body. Specifically, it is difficult to space-efficiently arrange a battery cell or cells in a small camera body because a cell used for cameras generally has an elongated cylindrical shape.
In the case of a camera having the built-in retractable flash in which the casing of the flash itself is pivoted directly to the camera body, the flash cannot be raised from the camera body by a height over the height or length of the casing. It is well-known that the red-eye phenomenon tends to occur when the optical axis of the flash is not sufficiently apart from the optical axis of the photographic lens. Further, in the case where the lens barrel is of an extendable type of zoom lens barrel, it is well-known that the flashlight is partly interrupted by the tip of the extended lens barrel when the optical axis of the flash is not sufficiently apart from the optical axis of the photographic lens. In order to prevent such problems, there has been proposed a camera having the built-in retractable flash in which the casing of the flash is movably connected to the camera body through a linking mechanism so as to raise the flash higher than the height or length of the casing from the camera body. However, to provide such a linking mechanism in the camera body, it is usually necessary to provide a plurality of fixed pivots and some other elements on the camera body, which makes it difficult to space-efficiently arrange and design the flash. Furthermore, with such a linking mechanism it is difficult to stably and rigidly hold the built-in retractable flash in its raised operable position because the linking mechanism is generally provided with a plurality of pivoted shafts which are very complex in their movements, which is a disadvantage to securing a sufficient strength of the linking mechanism.